Crawling Baby - Where do you take them?

[Lavenderdays]

My baby (10 months) is crawling/pulling herself up etc. Basically she is into everything (I know they are programmed to explore).

I'm sitting in the lounge with her with a lovely box of toys etc but she ignores these and crawls off to discover. Room is relatively baby proof...but even so she managed to bang her head (not hard) on a circular wooden door handle on TV cabinet. There are a couple of items I need to remove from the room because she is perpetually going for those also.

On Monday, I took her to a toddler group...the floors were wooden (there was a bit of carpet but it was far from clean) and anyway dd crawled off this...I had to watch her the whole time to ensure she didn't bang her head.
I know soft play is an option but there are a lot of viruses going around at the moment here including a sickness bug so I'm a bit reluctant to take her there. I guess I just need to look for some more spaces that are set up more for babies. How has everyone else managed with this...have you been successful in finding good spaces to take your crawling youngster? I know I probably shouldn't feel like this but it is currently driving me mad (the weather isn't great to keep taking her out in the pushchair...but this does seem like an attractive option!). I have no extended family and dh works full-time, so no breaks either.

I baby proofed the whole ground floor at home so my DCs could roam about without worrying.

I did the odd baby group and got them full snow suits so they could go outside and crawl as well.

Leisure centres often have good soft plays that are done in sports halls so lots of open space for babies to crawl (and in the week there are no school children so they won't get trampled). Otherwise I would risk the wooden floors and bumps, unfortunately it is part of having a baby that is getting more mobile that they get a few bruises!

Thanks both. You were really good to babyproof the whole of your downstairs Believe...probably saved much stress in the long run. I've got to be constantly vigilant because I have an older dc with toys that have lots of bits (this have been banished from the main sitting room but nevertheless there is also the lurking threat that bits will find their way in). I'm going to look into the local leisure centre idea and see what else is around, I'm thinking it might be safer to get out of the house, shortly. The constant watching is ongoing isn't it?

The constant watching is ongoing isn't it?

DD didn't crawl until 10mo or walk until 14mo and she was a very sensible baby, so I was quite lucky. DS however is 6mo, very grabby and bouncy and already trying to crawl so I have a feeling that I am going to have to be hyper-vigilant with him!

I kind of knew this was coming having two older children...I think I put it to the back of my mind!